Husky Loops with Live4ever @ SXSW 2019 (Paul Bachmann / Live4ever)
Most bands say they are eclectic. Hell, most bands probably think they are eclectic. In the case of Husky Loops, they walk the walk.
Over three EPs and a raft of singles, Tom, Danio and Pietro have both demonstrated and harnessed a range of sounds, from straight-forward indie rock to dance-pop. The band revel in being hard to pin down and are a true product of the 21st century, in that genres and pigeon-holes are carrying less and less meaning. The trio have exploited this to act with true artistic freedom.
Live4ever sat down with the boys at SXSW to discuss their past, present and future.
You’re from Bologna and based in London. The band got together in London, is that right?
Danio: We’re definitely a London band. We see ourselves and feel like a London band. Pretty much eight years, all of us.
Why did the three of you get together to start this band?
Danio: When we realised we were in London it seemed quite natural to meet. It started at his (Pietro) end more. Pietro was in a band in London. He loved what I was doing with my band back in Bologna. So when I moved there I contacted him, slept in his bed for like a week and then we said ‘maybe we should jam’. The first time we jammed everything started naturally. We knew him (Tom) from our hometown, then he joined. It was pretty much a very organic, natural way of meeting each other and started playing together.
That’s more of the ‘how’ you got together. How about the ‘why’? Is there a ‘why’ to Husky Loops?
Danio: The reason me and Tom moved to England was definitely to succeed in music. London was the perfect place to go because it was so challenging and so full of good music that inevitably would have pushed us and challenged us to become what we are today. Sometimes if you’re from places where there isn’t a big music scene you don’t work as much. I think it’s because you don’t realise how much work you have to put in. When we moved to England we knew that it would be a place where we felt, ‘OK, here we can really put all of ourselves and all of the work we have’, because all of the work was amazing.
Pietro: For me it was more simple. I was playing and I was jamming, then I moved to London to study Art and Design. Drumming and making music was something I was doing on the side, but I quickly grew bored with people that wanted to play music just to fit into standards, or sound like one specific band or the other. Also, people were not talking it seriously, it was just an excuse to go out and drink on the weekend and play shitty shows. I wanted to do it better, and I think we still do want to make music that we’d listen to ourselves. I met these guys, who really care about what they do, and we started to get together. When that started working, we started looking up what it was that we wanted to do musically together, after that first period that was jamming and trying out different things. We still do (that) but now it’s bit more defined.
What, if anything, stands out in your mind as what marks Husky Loops’ past?
Tom: Playing hundreds of shows in front of no-one because that made us really confident. It taught us a lot of the time that the opposite of what we do is about the crowd, and playing in front of people. But it also taught us that you always need to give 100% always so when there isn’t a crowd, you still need to be amazing and practice. Understand who you are. Sometimes you play in front of six people who are drunk and don’t care. That taught us to be louder and more annoying to catch their attention. I think the reason we can stand in front of the stage is because we played in front of no-one, hundreds of times.
How about the present?
Tom: Last year we did our first European tour. When we got to Amsterdam we had a sold-out show, that was the first time we’ve ever done anything like that. That was the moment where we realised that all the effort we were putting in was making it work. People were digging it and caring about it, traveling across the Netherlands to come and see us. It was a great moment for us. It was about 150 capacity, not huge but a good achievement for us.
Danio: For me it’s being in America. It’s crazy that we’re here. I just can’t believe that this band got to this point. I think we can get to really big places, but still! I saw him (Tim) on the first day we went to high school, when he had long hair and he was just a kid. I remember seeing him. If someone then told me ‘in ten years’ time you’ll be touring the States with that guy’, I’d be like ‘sure man.’ It sounds cheesy and naïve but so much of the heritage I have as a songwriter and musician comes from America. I’m super into hip-hop, so being in New York was crazy. We worked with some rappers there and went to some hip-hop nights. It wasn’t like listening to hip-hop in Peckham. Coming from Bologna, it was a bit mind-blowing.
So what about the future?
Danio: We worked on an album. It’s almost finished. When we started we became one of those hyped bands. It happens a lot in England. When you’re a band, people love to put you in boxes and say you’re punk, or indie rock, and everyone expects you to make an album. It’s still a huge thing in the industry, which for us doesn’t really make any sense. We love albums but no-one today gives a shit about albums. We don’t see any point in making one. This is the first time we worked on an album because we felt like doing it. We like to change and always reinvent ourselves and it’s that again. The sound and songwriting are very different. That will definitely be our future because we’re embracing a new path and new style.
Pietro: We want to make really good music. At the beginning, we would really focus a lot on writing songs and be very slow at it. Everyone would come up with four songs, and that would be an EP. We really like that because we put a lot into just four songs. First the beat was angular and post-punk, then it had some psychedelic influence. Then the third one was more pop, almost R’n’B. This album is probably going to be a chance to tell a longer story.
